Thank you for expressing interest in the ongoing work to reduce noise and vibrations from streetcars at the King/Sumach intersection. The presentation from the meeting held on November 16, 2016 is now posted online at: http://www.ttc.ca/Service_Advisories/Construction/King_Sumach_Track.jsp
As indicated at the evening meeting on November, 16, 2016, TTC will continue to schedule an accessible shuttle bus between the hours of 10:00pm to the end of service nightly. Similarly, the shuttle bus will run from the start of service in the early morning, to 7:00 a.m. on weekdays and to 10:00 a.m. on weekends. The shuttle bus replaces streetcar service on Sumach/Cherry Street between King and the “Distillery Loop” on Cherry Street. As noted, the purpose of the shuttle at this time is to avoid streetcar turning noise in the late and early hours for our neighbours.
As mentioned at the meeting, the Distillery District will be a very busy destination this holiday season. For a short period, streetcar operation on the 514 Cherry route has been temporarily extended in the evening to approximately 11:30 p.m. The accessible shuttle bus service (Wheel-Trans bus) will run from approximately 11:30 p.m. to the end of scheduled service (1:00 a.m.), and in the early mornings.
Some local residents expressed concerns with transferring between streetcars and the shuttle bus after 10:00pm. They explained their desire for TTC to continue to run streetcars until the end of scheduled service at approximately 1:00am for safety and convenience. Other neighbours expressed a preference for TTC to stop running streetcars on the 514 route entirely, until the full fleet of low-floor streetcars is deployed on the route – and noise is reduced at King/Sumach. The current operation plan is of course far from perfect, but attempts to strike a fair compromise between the concerns raised locally.
The 514 Cherry Streetcar route is scheduled to become an accessible service, completely operated with new low-floor streetcars in summer 2017. The current streetcar/shuttle bus operation is planned to continue until the 514 route is fully accessible. Third party noise and vibration testing by professional acoustic engineers will be scheduled in spring and summer 2017 to quantify the noise and vibration levels at the intersection. The levels are anticipated to decline with the full implementation of the GPS activated wheel-lubricating low-floor streetcars. Reports quantifying the noise and vibration levels will be posted online as soon as they are completed.
Sincerely,
Paul Tran
Community Liaison
Toronto Transit Commission
T: 416-981-1601 | paul.tran@ttc.ca<mailto:paul.tran@ttc.ca>